Spike’s Video Game Awards Debut Game Trailers, Present Awards, Invent Soft-core Console Porn

Last night, Spike’s Video Game Awards debuted a host of new games, gave out awards for the best games of the year and, despite a bit of disingenuous Hollywood glitz, generally entertained.

The night, hosted by the always kinetic Jack Black, started with a very funny pre-taped skit in which Black was caught cheating on his Wii with a Playstation 3 and XBox 360, complete with blurred-out disc-tray exposure. Afterwards, the actual awards started with a rousing rock opera about fighting off the evils of reading, exercise and meaningful relationships, performed by Black and his Tenacious D partner Kyle Gass.

Besides humour, the VGAs also offered up game trailer debuts; a lot of game trailer debuts. The debuts included: Dante’s Inferno, Watchmen: The End is Nigh, God of War III, Uncharted 2, DLC for GTA IV, titled The Lost & Damned, DLC for Gears of War 2, which was released at midnight last night, and the metal-inspired adventure game Brutal Legend, which stars Jack Black as the main character.

The trailers were nice to see, but felt a little bit like advertisements, making it a bit difficult to get excited about them. I can’t quite shake the feeling that all these trailers would have just been released on the internet with little to no special fanfare if they hadn’t been debuted on the VGAs. This gave the impression that the only thing special about them was that they were, well, on the VGAs. Nonetheless, it was nice to see video games get the same sort of attention and recognition that blockbuster movies get.

The night also featured a host of celebrities, including Tony Hawk, Eliza Dushku, Kristin Kreuk, Keifer Sutherland, who won an award for Big Name in the Game for his work in Call of Duty 4: World at War, and many others.

Once again is was nice to see Hollywood recognizing the legitimacy of video games with its presence, but it also felt a bit disingenuous at times; while Tony Hawk has been at every VGA so far, and is deeply connected to the video game industry through his widely successful Tony Hawk skateboarding games, it’s hard to say that someone like Kim Kardashian attended for any reason other than some exposure. Maybe I’m being unfairly judgmental, but I can’t see Kardashian sitting down to pwn some noobs in Halo 3.

But it wasn’t just Hollywood celebrities that attended; some video gaming icons were featured as well. Will Wright received a lifetime achievement award, Tim Schafer presented his upcoming game Brutal Legend in a funny skit involving Judas Priest’s Rob Halford and a flamethrower-toting Jack Black, and Alex Rigopulos accepted an award for Harmonix’s Rock Band 2.

Oh, and there were awards too. I was glad to see that the games nominated and the awards given out seemed to be genuine choices that most video game players would agree with. GTA IV, Rock Band 2, Fallout 3, and other fan favourites brought home honours,  and none of the choices seemed to be influenced by or chosen for marketing reasons. Here are the results:

GAME OF THE YEAR

• Grand Theft Auto IV

CONSOLE-SPECIFIC WINNERS

• Best Xbox 360 Game: Gears of War 2
• Best PS3 Game: LittleBigPlanet
• Best PC Game: Left 4 Dead
• Best Wii Game: Boom Blox
• Best Handheld Game: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

GENRE WINNERS

• Best Individual Sports Game: Shaun White Snowboarding
• Best Fighting Game: Soul Calibur IV
• Best RPG: Fallout 3
• Best Shooter: Gears of War 2
• Best Team Sports Game: NHL 09
• Best Action Adventure Game: Grand Theft Auto IV
• Best Driving Game: Burnout Paradise
• Best Music Game: Rock Band 2
• Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show: LEGO Indiana Jones

MISCELLANEOUS AWARDS

• Studio of the Year: Media Molecule
• Best Multi-Player Game: Left 4 Dead
• Best Independent Game: World of Goo
• Big Name in the Game (Female): Jenny McCarthy
• Big Name in the Game (Male): Kiefer Sutherland
• Best Performance by a Human (Female): Debbie Mae West
• Best Performance by a Human (Male): Michael Hollick
• Best Original Score: Metal Gear Solid 4
• Best Soundtrack: Rock Band 2
• Best Graphics: Metal Gear Solid 4

Overall, the VGAs were entertaining, at least for this video game fan. Some of the glitz and glamour felt a bit contrived, but this is to be an expected outcome as video games become more and more mainstream and gain broader exposure. Overall, the VGAs did justice to the best video games of the year while offering up a few laughs at the same time.